Section 40 relieving the relayer from proceedings for infringement when
a broadcast is relayed.
20
So far as is known there are no relay operations in existence
in any of the countries referred to above, so that the omission of the
relieving provisions of Section 40 of the Act is of no significance in
relation to those countries.
21
The situation is, however, entirely different in Hong Kong
where there is a multiplicity of broadcasting services, including two
wireless sound broadcasting stations, a wireless television station, a
wired sound broadcasting service and a wired television service. The
two wired services are operated by the Company under licences from the
Government of Hong Kong, which licences specifically grant to the Company
the right to relay the wireless programmes of any station in the
official international list of broadcasting stations.
Moreover the
relay of television broadcasts by the Company is now very actively under
consideration in Hong Kong.
22. The proposed Order in Council extending the Act to Hong Kong
will, whilst creating copyright in Hong Kong broadcasts, omit any
provisions equivalent to the relieving provisions of Section 40 of the
Act in relation to works broadcast. Further, the proposed Bill to
amend the Act in its application to Hong Kong will make it a restricted
act to relay the broadcasts themselves.
23. If it was the intention, as presumably it was, that the Act
should be extended to the Commonwealth so that the local laws would
follow the United Kingdom legislation as nearly as possible, to make it
an infringement to relay the work broadcast, with no relieving provisions
similar to Section 40, and to make it an infringement to relay the
broadcasts themselves, results in a product differing from the intention
to the maximum possible degree from the point of view of relay operations.
In practice it means that a relay operator cannot relay local broadcasts
whereas, in the United Kingdom, he is encouraged to do` SO. Further,
whereas no claims can be brought against him for
infringement of
6.